


Prologue

by Gizmo



Series: The Fools Who Dream [1]
Category: The Magicians (TV), The Magicians - Lev Grossman
Genre: General for now, M/M, hehe, we will see later
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-09
Updated: 2017-09-09
Packaged: 2018-12-25 20:42:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 773
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12043899
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gizmo/pseuds/Gizmo
Summary: There is only three things that makes Quentin smile: his Fillory and Further books, his best friend Julia and his foster brother Eliot.





	Prologue

There were three things in the world that calmed Quentin Coldwater when his brain was on the edge of breaking.

The first was the Fillory and Further books that he carried everywhere he goes and would re-read until he could say entire paragraph by heart. He owned several copies of it. There was the first edition in perfect condition in the shelf over his bed that was his most prized possession. Then there were the pocket edition he ended up buying to have something easier to carry in his bag and on which he wouldn’t care if he spilled coffee over the pages while reading. 

The second one was his best friend Julia. They’ve known each other since forever and not only she was the one that introduced him to Plover’s wonderful literature, but she was there for the low and the high. Despite being so different in so many aspect, they were bonded for life through a friendship that could never break. It almost did once, when Julia started to date James, but he swallowed his growing feeling for her and let her be happy with someone else. To this day, there was still this lingering feeling between the three of them that made Quentin unable to spend time more than a couple of hour. If too long, self pity will come haunt him and the spiral of self deprecation would start until he’d cry until the middle of the night. But that pain of un-required love -he will never say friendzone, this stripped the right to any girl to say no- was worth every time Julia would smile or help him come out of his shell and do thing he would never have done. 

The third one was his brother Eliot. Well half-brother. Well foster-brother. Well….. Eliot. Eliot was making him happy, calmer, by his simple presence. Between them, there was a silent contest of who was the most miserable. So when Eliot could read that Quentin was having a day, he was doubling his effort to being obnoxiously loud or to complain more about his problem. If closing up was Quentin’s way of self-hatred, Eliot exploded into an bigger-than-life side of himself that hid his true pain. It took him two years and stolen liquor from his dad to discover that. But since that drunken night, Eliot became Quentin’s brother wholeheartedly 

So he shouldn’t be surprised to see Eliot waiting for him as he was leaving the Midtown Mental Health Clinic when the weekend was over. But he was. Nobody knew where his was, his parent barely cared anyway and Eliot was supposed to be over his new boyfriend or something. Yet he was leaning against the wall of the hospital, smoking despite the clear no-smoking zone board stuck to the wall, his Ray Bans hiding his eyes, his hair blowing in the mid-may wind. 

\- Of all the place, Staten Island. Really? Eliot said as Quentin approached him, stubbing his cigarette with his foot.

\- How did you find me?   
\- It’s not the first time you take advantage of an empty house to disappear. It was either here or Midtown Comic. Thought I’d check. I didn’t told Jules yet.

Quentin curse behind his breath. While most young people his age would be ecstatic and throwing a party knowing their parent would leave for the weekend and brother spend time away from home, Quentin got ecstatic because he could go get himself checked up by Doctor Meers without having to worry everyone. 

Really, sometime he just needed to be checked back to reality and talk to someone that was brutally honest with him and his depressive tendency. 

\- I’m fine, you didn’t have to worry. He said, shrugging his bag on his shoulder 

\- Clearly. Said Eliot, putting a possessive arm around him. I’m starving. Burgers are on me. 

When they arrive to their usual place, of course Julia and James were there. Of course they all talked and laugh. Quentin even smiled, because that’s what those people do to him. Make him smile and try to forget, that part of him was broken. They didn’t even talked about where he could have been. Just about the next Marvel movie coming up and how they were so excited that summer was three exams away. 

By the end of the night, a dull but familiar ache of deep emptiness started to grow back into his chest. His brain was already rearranging his schedule to study more than he needed for their next test. And he was walking him with Eliot, both smoking and talking. He felt numb. But that was better than wanting to die.


End file.
